Irregular Warfare Center Concludes 4th Annual Scholars Colloquium Focused on Homeland Defense

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of War (DoW) Irregular Warfare Center (IWC) concluded its fourth annual Scholars Colloquium at the National Defense University in Fort McNair, Washington, D.C., bringing together a select cohort of emerging scholars and defense practitioners to address irregular warfare’s growing impact on homeland defense.

The two-day event held Sept. 1–2, 2026, directly advanced the 2026 National Defense Strategy Line of Effort 1 by cultivating early-to-mid-career researchers and generating actionable concepts for national defense and the DoW. Selected participants delivered research findings across five critical threat domains including operations in the information environment, medical intelligence, logistics and emerging technology, threat finance, and strategy. “During the planning phase of the colloquium, the Center puts out a global call for papers, and interested students submit their focused research for evaluation,” said IWC Functional Area Network (FAN) Program Manager Nathalie Lorentzen. “These submissions undergo a rigorous review process based on quality, policy and practitioner relevance, originality, and the capacity to introduce novel concepts. Out of numerous global submissions, only 10 papers are selected for the colloquium.”

The colloquium opened on Tuesday with a keynote address and open discussion led by IWC Director Dr. Dennis Walters. Following Dr. Walters’ keynote, presenters examined critical infrastructure and healthcare vulnerabilities, including assessments by TeNesha McGraw on foreign supply chain risks within domestic healthcare procurement, Reagin Jones on medical biological early warning systems, and U.S. Army Maj. Spencer Bates on systemic cyber and regulatory gaps across U.S. transit and maritime networks. A 12-member research team also evaluated the emerging asymmetric homeland strike threat posed by 3D-printed commercial off-the-shelf drones. Jones, a Marster’s Candidate at Seton Hall University’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations, was impressed with the span and the quality of research presented by her peers. She also felt justified by standing in front of the senior scholars and practitioners in attendance.

“I think, starting personally, this is so fulfilling. As a student, you put in way too many hours writing papers and doing the research. So, this helps show that not only, is it justified, but also it's worth something,” said Jones. “On a professional level, I'm able to expand my research and take it and refine it in a way that it's even more relevant and hopefully now going forward, we had someone talk to us about how to get it published, the steps on doing that and realistic ways we can go about it.”

The second day honed in on societal resilience, non-kinetic targeting, and economic levers, featuring analyses by Tom Johansmeyer on disaster-related disinformation, Giovanni Capasso on psychological operations, Charles Sclater-Booth on fintech as modern statecraft, and Derrick Lagoy on Bayesian modeling of subnational foreign influence targeting. Scholars also evaluated European strategic sabotage precedents and neoclassical realist frameworks for whole-of-society defense.

Throughout the event, researchers worked directly with IWC leadership, including Functional Area Network (FAN) representatives Dr. Sandor Fabian and Matthew Heidel, in small working groups to refine their findings into operationally relevant recommendations.

Strategic Initiatives Program Manager at New York City Emergency Management Mr. Luke Boyce underscored the importance of connecting research on irregular warfare with the challenges faced by state and local practitioners, particularly as the effects of foreign threats increasingly intersect with emergency management.

“Irregular warfare may originate far beyond a city’s borders, but its consequences can ultimately present themselves as local emergencies,” said Boyce. “A cyberattack, disinformation campaign, disruption to critical infrastructure, or other hostile action may be part of a much broader strategic campaign, but at the local level, we experience those actions through their effects on people, infrastructure, essential services, and the economy. For emergency managers, that means understanding irregular warfare not only as a national security challenge, but as something we need to consider as we prepare our communities for the emergencies of the future.”

Established by Congress under 10 U.S. Code § 345, the IWC serves as the Department's central mechanism for developing irregular warfare concepts, doctrine, and partner integration. Through collaborative initiatives like the Functional Area Networks developed with the Assistant Secretary of War for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict, the Center continues to expand the nation's irregular warfare capacity to outpace asymmetric global threats.

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